
Person
Julie Dash
Directing · Born 1952-10-22 · Long Island City, New York, USA
Biography
Julie Ethel Dash (born October 22, 1952) is an American film director, writer and producer. Dash received her MFA in 1985 at the UCLA Film School and is one of the graduates and filmmakers known as the L.A. Rebellion. The L.A. Rebellion refers to the first African and African-American students who studied film at UCLA. After she had written and directed several shorts, her 1991 feature Daughters of the Dust became the first full-length film directed by an African-American woman to obtain general theatrical release in the United States. Daughters of the Dust was named one of the most significant films of the last 30 years, by IndieWire. Dash has worked in television since the late 1990s. Her television movies include Funny Valentines (1999), Incognito (1999), Love Song (2000), and The Rosa Parks Story (2002), starring Angela Bassett. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center commissioned Dash to direct Brothers of the Borderland in 2004, as an immersive film exhibit narrated by Oprah Winfrey following the path of women gaining freedom on the Underground Railroad. In 2017, Dash directed episodes of Queen Sugar on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Known for

American Playhouse
Director

Queen Sugar
Director

Hollywood Black
Self (archive footage)

Women: Stories of Passion
Writer

These Amazing Shadows
Self

Praise House
Director

Wanda Sykes: Legacy
Director

Subway Stories
Director

This Changes Everything
Self

Four Women
Director
Filmography
- 2026Wanda Sykes: LegacyDirector
- 2025HomeGoingDirector
- 2024Hollywood BlackSelf (archive footage)
- 2023Seeking: Mapping Our Gullah Geechee StoryDirector
- 2022Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-PowerSelf
- 2019This Changes EverythingSelf
- 2017Travel Notes of a Geechee GirlDirector
- 2016Queen SugarDirector
- 2016Standing at the Scratch LineDirector
- 2016Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema at UCLAHerslef
- 2011These Amazing ShadowsSelf
- 2003Sisters in CinemaSelf
- 2002The Rosa Parks StoryDirector
- 2000Love SongDirector
- 1999IncognitoDirector
- 1999Funny ValentinesDirector
- 1997Subway StoriesDirector
- 1996Women: Stories of PassionWriter
- 1992The Cinematic Jazz of Julie DashHerself
- 1991Daughters of the DustDirector
- 1991Praise HouseDirector
- 1989RelativesDirector
- 1988Breaths - Sweet Honey in the RockDirector
- 1983My Brother's WeddingAssistant Director
- 1982IllusionsProducer
- 1982A Different ImageContinuity
- 1982American PlayhouseDirector
- 1977Diary of an African NunDirector
- 1975Four WomenDirector
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